Several high-profile agents, including Jeff Schwartz, Arn Tellem, Mark Bartelstein, Bill Duffy and Dan Fegan, have been on the phones with each other this week. Sources briefed on the conversations say they’re getting closer to pursuing a signed petition, with 30 percent of the NBA’s players needed to bring a formal vote on dissolving the union.

The core agents had been recruiting rival agents to join them in the overthrow, trying to get the majority vote needed to decertify.

I want to say I belie vethis is what David Stern actually wants. He wants the veteran NBA players already signed to big contracts to get pissed that they might lose hefty paychecks and sign whatever owner friendly deal is in front of them. The players most affected would be the youngest players and players down the line. but do you think guys like Antawn Jamison, Kobe Bryant, Gilbert Arenas, or Baron Davis are concerned with contracts that will be signed 4 years from now on?

This Yahoo piece really shows how diabolical Stern is. He pretended to be making progress last week and gave the impression that the owners would present an offer yesterday and then, blam! Nothing. This makes Hunter look uninformed and helps to tear apart the players union.
Here's what one "prominent" player agent had to say regarding yesterday's pathetic events and how it affects Billy Hunter:

“He’s chosen a particular path, and there hasn’t been any progress on that path. There was all this false optimism in the last week about how the league was going to come with a new proposal that he could take back to the players, and they came with nothing. Stern wants to stall, and stall until the players start missing paychecks.

“Billy was hoping that he could keep the players engaged, excited that a deal was coming. There was all that rhetoric of good feelings, and today was the day that Stern was going to come with a proposal. He was relying on the fact that Stern would negotiate in good faith with him, that he didn’t want to lose games. He thought that Stern would blink, start to negotiate. He was relying on the fact Stern didn’t want to hurt the game, and he was wrong.”

7 Responses so far.

What is the purpose of breaking up the players union? How does this add strength to their bargaining position? You don't do it just to make a statement. But then this whole thing hasn't been planned for s!!t as far as contigency positions are concerned. The big boys need to step up and talk about breaking the owners. Making their own deal with tv for the year, start their own league in the biggest markets with volunteer coaches. Who wouldnt want that on their resume. They should refuse to go back to the negotiating table until they fire David Stern. He's been out of control all year, took a power play pill with his bagel every morning. Can't wear your headband upside down- that's important. If anyone looks at a ref wrong call a tec- that made the game sooooooo much nicer to watch. The NBA should be sued anyway, it's an antitrust issue. I don't care what but do SOMETHING. And have contigencies for your decisions. This is Negotiating 101. I'm it does say Do nothing, or wait for them.

Breaking up the union (aka decertification) is a tactic the union can use for leverage. It's usually left as a last-ditch effort though, since it creates lots of chaos. Not only will it mess with the owners, but the players feel the turmoil as well. A labor union cannot actually file an anti-trust lawsuit, they can merely threaten to do it. Then the employers say "you can't, suckers." Then the union says "we can if we decertify!" and everyone in the room gasps loudly. Another thing an individual player can do is if he brings an anti-trust suit to a federal judge and the judge sides with the player, the player can file an injunction with the employer, forcing the employer to pay the player anyways. Since the employer wouldn't want to pay the player for nothing, theoretically (and most likely) the employer would bring back basketball, so he can make money too.

I meant to add that specifically, the chaos im referring to is multi-year lawsuits, and a complete lack of negotiating. Instead of negotiating with a union, owners would have to negotiate with all the player's agents individually if they wanted to bring back basketball, which probably just wouldn't happen. Also, like i said, multi-year lawsuits. thats probably 2 years minimum without the NBA around. Makes a lot of enemies, costs a lot of money, and leaves all the important stuff up to federal judges. No one wants that, but the players have less to lose and more to gain from it all, which is why it is used as leverage in this type of argument, even if it is typically a bluff. The agents welcome it cause they are just interested in the money. The players are less enthusiastic because they know it will mean no pro-bball for quite some time, though some might see it as the only option at this point.

So when the football league decertified how did they get the players all back on road so quickly? They had a well executed plan and created some leverage. The players have to create some leverage think out of the box here, make David Stern a point of contention, take all the previous offers off the table, sue for bad faith negotiating. Decertify and refuse to play ball for them this year. No owners of any other companies get to band together and screw all the workers doing the same jobs at colluded prices.(except walmart but that's a different post) That's so un-American. Except during the slave days. Workin hard to take the free out of free agent. Hard line bye bye davie.......